Authors:
Ines Puntschart
1
;
Klaus Tochtermann
1
and
Gisela Dösinger
2
Affiliations:
1
Know-Center, Graz University of Technology, Austria
;
2
Know-Center, Austria
Keyword(s):
Blog, discussion forum, knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, social software, virtual communities, Web
2.0, WIKI.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Communities of Practice
;
Computer-Supported Education
;
Learning/Teaching Methodologies and Assessment
;
Society, e-Business and e-Government
;
Web Information Systems and Technologies
Abstract:
The overwhelming success of all different types of social software, such as WIKIs, Blogs etc. is about to
change the way how communities interact with each other. Most of the systems are being used on a
voluntary basis run and maintained by individuals who have a deep wish to transfer and share their
knowledge with others. This transfer and sharing, however, often takes place outside any educational setting
even though the main purpose of educational settings such as universities is to educate students through
sharing and transferring knowledge. Up to now social software tools are used very rarely in universities to
support teaching and training, and this is the case even though students are keen on using exactly these tools
in their spare time. This observation leads to the guiding research question for our work: How can social
software be used most effectively and efficiently in higher education? In order to find answers we conducted
four case studies at Graz University of
Technology with more than 350 students involved.
(More)